Iron Lady

Feminine Navigational Droid
28mm

Cabin's purged by satellites, now we're flying high
We've got a lady pilot, who's not afraid to die

This figure started life as a Space Bunny Arts sculpt.  It was a fun conversion, and an extensive one:

I liked the original, but after seeing "Solo: A Star Wars Story" its passing resemblance to Lando Calrissian's passionately droid-emancipating co-pilot L3-37 prodded me to do a conversion.  L3-37 was one of my favourite supporting characters in the movie, partly because "she" finally addressed (in spades) the awkward question of droid ownership in the SW universe, and partly because she was just well-written.

Man of the World

Corto Maltese
28 mm

I won this figure a few months ago from North Star figures in a (very unexpected) random draw at Lead Adventure forum.  This Mark Copplestone sculpt is an homage to the 1970s Italian comic book hero Corto Maltese, a sort of Han-Solo-like roving ship's captain and adventurer who meets exotic people, defends the underdog and generally champions liberty and fairness wherever he goes.  I'll confess I wasn't familiar with the books, but I should be; the art is stunning:

It Followed Me Home

New friend
15 mm

"Hey guys, this is Genet-Subspeaker Slaa, I think he's like, a kind of plant or something.  But he's cool... can he come in?"

Just a silly project I put together from some figures (girl: GZG; Slaa: Ion Age) I've been trying to decide what to do with.  Inspired by the possibility that First Contacts might not always be the exclusive domain of giant inscrutable spaceships showing up and asking to speak to the leader...

Sinister Synthetics

Android Hunter-Killer Team
15 mm

Ja tvoi sluga, ja tvoi rabotnik

Sigh. I remember the good old days, when a google search for "killer robots" led to popular movies, and not news articles...

These Khurasan figures are ostensibly "police bots", but I think adding skull masks gave them a really menacing military look.

Huey and Dewey

Horticultural droids
15 mm scale

Back to 15mm for a bit here, with a quick couple of GZG robots...

When you're a scientist on an ecological preserve ship in space who's mutinied against orders to destroy your cargo, murdered your crewmates, and set off for the rings of Saturn, sometimes it's handy to have a few mechanical sidekicks along to help with the gardening:

"Not wargaming"?  The battle against aphids NEVER ends!

 Obviously, these are not- versions of the funny little bots from "Silent Running" (1972):

Kind of hokey, kind of preachy, VERY 70's, but still surprisingly enjoyable...

Poe's Law

Edgar Allan Poe
28 mm

Out- out are the lights- out all!
And, over each quivering form,
The curtain, a funeral pall,
Comes down with the rush of a storm,
While the angels, all pallid and wan,
Uprising, unveiling, affirm
That the play is the tragedy, "Man,"
And its hero the Conqueror Worm.

I learned a lot about Poe doing the (unnecessary) research for this figure.  I read stories like "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Telltale Heart" in school, and I'd certainly hope any North American with a TV is familiar with his Gothic poem "The Raven".  His financial struggles would be unsurprising to anyone familiar with the publishing industry.  But I did not know that he was in the army, or that his story The Murders in the Rue Morgue was the first modern detective story, or that when he was 27 he married his 14-year -old cousin...

As I posted earlier, this is another excellent figure from the Bears Head Miniatures Kickstarter.  It's obviously based on the well-known portraits from later in Poe's life, with impressive accuracy.  I doubt he regularly carried a skull and raven about town, but I think the figure really captures Poe's literary character very well.

"Howard, I know they said we could bring a pet, but I brought, well, a bird..."

Scribe of the Unspeakable

H.P. Lovecraft
28 mm

This Bears Head miniature was a real pleasure to paint!  Part literary caricature, part dramatic fictional character, it's an excellent sculpt, crisp and dynamic.  Waving his unholy idol and clutching his dog-eared copy of the Necronomicon, the author unleashes the creative process on an unsuspecting world...

I learned a few new things about Lovecraft in the painting process, like his hair colour, for which I had to consult professional Lovecraft impersonator Leeman Kessler, as no colour photographs of the author seem to exist.  I've always enjoyed Lovecraft's lurid works, and despite his personal shortcomings and the fact that many of his creations have reached the status of self-parody in recent fandom, I truly think he was a man of remarkable imagination who contributed a lot to the fantasy, horror and SF genres.

Late night rites at the Miskatonic University library...